Italy has placed entire areas — including the financial capital, Milan — under forced quarantine in an attempt to contain an already widespread outbreak of the new coronavirus.

The new measures, announced by Italian Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte early on Sunday and taking immediate effect, imposed a lockdown on Lombardy, Italy’s northern rich region, as well as 14 provinces in four other of the country’s 19 regions. Some of the major cities included are Milan, Venice, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia and Rimini.

“We are facing an emergency, a national emergency. We have been applying precautionary measures from the beginning and we are facing the situation with awareness and without underestimating it,” Conte said in a televised speech as he announced the draconian measures.

The measures included the closure of all museums, cultural centers, cinemas, theaters, and other public venues and events in the affected areas, impacting a total of 16 million people in the country of 60 million.

“We want to guarantee the health of our citizens. We understand that all these measures will create inconveniences… But this is a time when we must take responsibility for ourselves. We need to understand that all of us need to adhere to the measures. We need to protect our own health, the health of our dear ones,” the Italian prime minister added.

The decree also banned city commute within the designated areas other than for emergencies or “essential work reasons.”

“There will be no movement in or out of these areas, or within them, unless for proven, work-related reasons, emergencies or health reasons,” Conte said.

Italy’s Civil Protection Agency announced in a statement that the number of coronavirus cases in the country reached 5,883 on Saturday, the biggest daily rise since the epidemic began just over two weeks ago.

Angelo Borrelli, the head of the agency, also told a news conference that the number of fatalities had risen to 233 people, up by 36.

Italy is now the country with the highest deaths after China, where the virus first emerged.

The measures taken by the Italian government on Sunday are similar to those adopted in China’s central Hubei Province, whose nearly 60-million-strong population has been kept under quarantine since late January.

The total number of the people diagnosed with the coronavirus, known as COVID-19, has passed 100,000 worldwide, while 3,500 people have lost their lives across 95 countries and territories.

China quarantine hotel collapse claims six lives

Meanwhile, six people were confirmed dead on Sunday following the collapse of a hotel used as a coronavirus quarantine facility in the eastern Chinese city of Quanzhou.

The Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management said rescuers had also retrieved 38 survivors from the rubble — with five in critical or serious condition — out of the 71 people initially trapped in the building.

The hotel’s first floor had been under renovation before the collapse of the building in the coastal city on Saturday evening.

Over 3,600 released from quarantine in North Korea: Reports

Also on Sunday, media reports said North Korea had released some 3,650 people quarantined over the new coronavirus after imposing strict restrictions and closing its borders in order to prevent the outbreak.

The individuals had been kept under quarantine in Kangwon and Chagang provinces, North Korea’s state radio reported, according to Yonhap news agency.

North Korea’s official KCNA news agency also announced on Friday that 221 out of the 380 foreigners who were under “strict medical monitoring” had been discharged from isolation.

Pyongyang has banned tourists and suspended international trains and flights to and from the country.

Maldives reports first coronavirus cases

In a related development, the Maldives reported its first two cases of the coronavirus infection on Sunday.

Local authorities said the two infected individuals — both of them staffers at a Kuredu Island resort facility — had tested positive late on Saturday and were suspected to have contracted the disease from an Italian tourist who had also tested positive after returning to his home country.

The Maldives restricted movement on Kuredu and several other resort islands.

Ali Waheed, the tourism minister of the country, said the two individuals had been quarantined.

“The period for the temporary restrictions will be decided by the medical teams. Right now, we have identified people who were in contact with the patients and they are in self-isolation along with secondary contacts. At this time we can say that these individuals will be monitored for 14 days,” he added.

The Maldives had already suspended direct air links with China, the epicenter of the virus.

Source: Presstv

Cameroon confirmed the central African state’s first case of COVID-19 on its territory Friday. Officials say it was discovered in a French citizen who arrived in Cameroon on Feb. 24. 

Cameroon Health Minister Manaouda Malachie says the 58-year-old man was immediately placed in solitary confinement in a special hospital in. Malachie credited surveillance measures put in place by Cameroon after COVID-19 appeared in China with detecting the case and called on Cameroon’s population to be calm.

He said shortly after it was suspected the man was a carrier of the virus, he was immediately confined to avoid contact with others. Malachie said health officials started tracing the people the infected man contacted from the airport of departure through the plane’s arrival in Cameroon, as well as taxis or cars he used.  They also disinfected places he visited. 

Malachie said this wasn’t the first case in which COVID-19 was suspected, but previous cases were found to be negative after thorough investigations.

Malachie called on citizens to be calm and vigilant, saying that medical staff in the country has been advised on how to handle coronavirus cases. 

But news of the first coronavirus in Cameroon has scared people. Some rushed to hospitals and pharmacies to ask for advice or buy medical facemasks. 

Forty-three-year-old Isaac Dufe, who bought three masks for his wife and two-year-old baby, said he doesn’t have confidence that the Cameroon government will be able to control the virus’s spread should many more people be found with it. 

“Cases of diseases have been recorded in this country, for instance, a case like cholera,” he said. “When there is an outbreak of cholera, in many situations in claims a lot of lives. But now we are talking about a very complicated disease like Coronavirus, so I am so scared that if adequate health measures are not taken, then the situation might be very difficult in Cameroon.”

Phanuel Habimana, a World Health Organization representative for Cameroon, said it is following up on the case. He says Cameroonians should not panic, but must make sure they respect basic hygiene norms.

“Cameroonians should remain calm,” Habimana said. “Cameroonians should not rush to pharmacies to try to get masks. Cameroonians should abide to the measures that the minister [of health] has been repeatedly mentioning. Personal hygiene, washing hands several times a day, when someone is coughing, cover the mouth and nose with handkerchiefs and also make sure that people do not get in contact closely with people who are suspected to be sick.”

Last January, Cameroon health officials announced they had improved checkpoints around airports as they feared the virus could be brought into the country by travelers from China and other countries.

Health Minister Malachie said as part of epidemiological surveillance, measures had been put in place to prevent any possible importation of the deadly virus, which he said was an epidemic that causes diseases in mammals and birds and that in humans, the virus causes respiratory infections, which are typically mild but, in rare cases, can be lethal. 

Symptoms include running nose, headache, cough, sore throat, fever and the feeling of being unwell. B There is no vaccine for this virus and the only way to protect oneself is through prevention, health officials in Cameroon say.

Source: VOA

The first case of Coronavirus has  been recorded in Cameroon. The Minister of Public Health confirmed the information earlier today.

According to the minister, a case of Coronavirus was confirmed at the Centre Pasteur laboratory in Yaoundé after a sampling carried out Thursday at the Cathedral Clinic on a French citizen who arrived in Cameroon since February 24.

“The Minister of Public Health, announced the confirmation of a case of Corvid-19, on Cameroonian territory. It is a 58-year-old French citizen who arrived in Yaounde on February 24, 2020″, says the press release of Dr. Manaouda Malachie.

“He has been placed in isolation in the care centre of the Yaounde Central Hospital for appropriate care,” the statement said.

Contacted by telephone, a doctor from the central hospital who requested anonymity confirmed that the patient had been placed in isolation.

By Rita Akana

A former American counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer of the CIA has said that the “Coronavirus did not occur naturally through mutation but rather was produced in a laboratory, possibly as a biological warfare agent.”

Since the novel coronavirus outbreak began in China last December, it has infected more than 90,000 people globally and killed more than 3,000. The majority of cases and deaths remain in mainland China.

The death toll from the coronavirus in Iran, which has one of the highest numbers outside China, stood at 107, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said Thursday.

“Several reports suggest that there are components of the virus that are related to HIV that could not have occurred naturally. If it is correct that the virus had either been developed or even produced to be weaponized it would further suggest that its escape from the Wuhan Institute of Virology Lab and into the animal and human population could have been accidental. Technicians who work in such environments are aware that “leaks” from laboratories occur frequently,” Philip Giraldi wrote in an article published by the Strategic Culture Foundation on Thursday.

“There is, of course and inevitably, another theory. There has been some speculation that as the Trump Administration has been constantly raising the issue of growing Chinese global competitiveness as a direct threat to American national security and economic dominance, it might be possible that Washington has created and unleashed the virus in a bid to bring Beijing’s growing economy and military might down a few notches. It is, to be sure, hard to believe that even the Trump White House would do something so reckless, but there are precedents for that type of behavior,” he said.

“In 2005-9 the American and Israeli governments secretly developed a computer virus called Stuxnet, which was intended to damage the control and operating systems of Iranian computers being used in that country’s nuclear research program. Admittedly Stuxnet was intended to damage computers, not to infect or kill human beings, but concerns that it would propagate and move to infect computers outside Iran proved to be accurate as it spread to thousands of PCs outside Iran, in countries as far flung as China, Germany, Kazakhstan and Indonesia,” he added.

“If one even considers it possible that the United States had a hand in creating the coronavirus at what remains of its once extensive biological weapons research center in Ft Detrick Maryland, it is very likely that Israel was a partner in the project. Helping to develop the virus would also explain how Israeli scientists have been able to claim success at creating a vaccine so quickly, possibly because the virus and a treatment for it were developed simultaneously,” he noted.

Israeli scientists have claimed to be close to developing a vaccine for coronavirus that could be available in about 90 days, saying they have developed an effective vaccine against avian coronavirus Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV), which is to be adapted soon and create a human vaccine against COVID-19.

Source: Presstv

US Vice President Mike Pence has admitted that the country does not have enough coronavirus tests available to satisfy the demand despite previously saying that everyone can be tested.

On Tuesday, Pence said that any American could be tested for the virus if a doctor deemed it necessary.

“We’re issuing new guidance, effective immediately, from the CDC that will make it clear that any clinician on health authority can administer the test,” said Pence.

The Health and Human Services Department “has designated the coronavirus test as an essential health benefit,” he added, noting, “That means by definition, it’s covered in the private health insurance of every American as well as covered by Medicare and Medicaid.”

However, he told reporters on Thursday that “we don’t have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward.”

This comes as the death toll in the country rose to 12 late in the day when King County in Washington state reported the latest fatality, according to Reuters news agency.

Eleven have died in the state of Washington, while one death was reported in California.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed 53 new cases across the country, striking for the first time in Colorado, Tennessee, Texas and San Francisco.

The CDC report brings the number of the total cases to at least 99 cases nationally, but reports by other websites put the figure at over 110.

Pence, who is leading the US response, called on Americans not to buy masks unless they need so that there are enough masks for healthcare workers and people who are sick.

“Unless you are ill, you have no need to buy a mask,” Pence said on a visit to Minnesota’s 3M Co, which has ramped up production of masks.

The US Senate on Thursday passed and sent to President Donald Trump an $8.3 billion funding bill to help state and local governments combat the spreading coronavirus.

Also on Thursday, the US Senate passed and sent to President Donald Trump an $8.3 billion funding bill to help state and local governments combat the spreading coronavirus.

Source: Presstv

More than 290 million students worldwide faced weeks at home on Thursday with Italy the latest country to shut schools over the deadly new coronavirus, as the IMF urged an all-out, global offensive against the epidemic.

More than 95,000 people have been infected and over 3,200 have died worldwide from the virus, which has now reached some 80 countries and territories.

The vast majority of global deaths and infections are in China, where the virus first emerged late last year, prompting the country to quarantine entire cities, temporarily shut factories and close schools indefinitely.

As the virus spread, other countries have also implemented extraordinary measures, with UNESCO saying Wednesday that 13 countries have closed schools, affecting 290.5 million children, while nine others have implemented localised closures.

While temporary school closures during crises are not new, UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay said, “the global scale and speed of the current educational disruption is unparalleled and, if prolonged, could threaten the right to education.”

Italy on Wednesday ordered schools and universities shuttered until March 15, ramping up its response as the national death toll rose to 107, the deadliest outbreak outside China.

South Korea – the country with the largest number of cases outside China with nearly 6,000 – has postponed the start of the current term until March 23.

In Japan, nearly all schools are closed after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for classes to be cancelled through March and spring break, slated for late March through early April.

Some 120 schools closed in France this week in areas with the largest numbers of infections.

Economic threat

The German health minister said the outbreak was now a “global pandemic” – a term the World Health Organization has stopped short of using, meaning the virus is spreading in several regions through local transmission.

Infections are now rising faster abroad than they are in China, where 31 more deaths and 139 new cases were reported Thursday. China’s death toll now stands at 3,012, with over 80,000 infections.

From western Europe to eastern Asia, supermarket shelves have been stripped of supplies in recent weeks, including toilet paper and hand sanitiser.

American businesses are increasingly concerned over access to goods and the overall economic outlook is more uncertain, the US Federal Reserve said in its beige book survey released on Wednesday.

With the US toll rising to 11 on Wednesday, lawmakers in Congress reached a deal to provide more than $8 billion to fight the outbreak.

The virus impact has spread beyond supply chains – stock markets have rumbled as warnings from financial bodies mount that countries could be pushed into recession.

The IMF said the epidemic posed a “serious threat” and would slow global growth to below last year’s 2.9 percent.

“At a time of uncertainty… it is better to do more than to do not enough,” IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said.

The epidemic “is a global problem calling for global response,” she said.

Eurozone ministers agreed after a meeting that they were ready to “use all appropriate policy tools to achieve strong, sustainable growth”.

No kissing

As the virus continues its march across the world, governments are scrambling to tighten prevention efforts.

Italy has seen its outbreak swell despite tough measures, including a quarantine of 11 towns with 50,000 people.

New measures include a month-long nationwide ban on fan attendance at sports events, as well as advising people to avoid greetings like kissing on the cheek or shaking hands.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conti said the country could tackle the outbreak as long as it remained contained.

“But in case of exponential growth, not just Italy but any other country in the world would not be able to manage the situation,” he said.

In Iran, where 92 people have died from the disease, schools have been shut and major cultural and sporting events suspended.

Saudi Arabia has suspended the year-round “umrah” pilgrimage, an unprecedented move that raises fresh uncertainty over the annual hajj.

Countries also continue to crack down on international travel.

Israel extended its mandatory quarantine measures – already in place for travellers from Italy and some Asian countries – to cover people from France, Germany, Spain, Austria and Switzerland.

Even cinemagoers were not immune from the effects of the virus – the producers of the latest James Bond film pushed back the release of the forthcoming “No Time To Die” from April to November.

(AFP)

The new coronavirus that causes an illness similar to the flu continues to afflict more people around the globe, with large numbers of new cases emerging in South Korea and Iran, even as death tallies increase at lower paces.

South Korea announced 516 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, most of them in and around the city of Daegu, where a secretive religious sect has been at the center of the outbreak in the country.

The new cases reported by the South Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bring the national tally to 5,328,with at least 32 deaths.

The flu-like virus has spread rapidly among the members of the Shincheonji religious group in South Korea, particularly in Daegu, the country’s fourth-biggest city, with a population of more than 2.5 million.

Health officials expect the number of cases to increase for the next days as they complete the testing of more than 200,000 members of the religious sect, as well as thousands of other suspected cases from smaller clusters.

Hospitals in South Korea’s hardest hit areas are scrambling to accommodate the surge in new patients. Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip said 2,300 people were waiting to be admitted to hospitals and temporary medical facilities in Daegu.

South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said during a special cabinet meeting that “special measures” to cope with the emergency.

The new coronavirus, recently named COVID-19, can cause various symptoms ranging from those of the common cold to more severe diseases such as pneumonia. Common signs include fever, cough, shortness of breath, and other respiratory complications.

The virus, which emerged in central China in late December last year, has so far claimed more than 3,000 lives worldwide.

Over 90,000 people have been infected across 68 countries and territories. While the majority of the deaths have occurred in mainland China, tallies there are slowing down, and other countries are registering cases at a higher pace.

Iran’s death rate now matching that of other countries

Meanwhile, the latest tallies from Iran showed 586 new infections and 15 new deaths on Wednesday.

The new figures announced by the Iranian Health Ministry raised the number of the overall infections in the country to 2,922, and the deaths to 92.

The new figures also reversed a previous trend of a higher death-to-infection rate than other afflicted countries. 

WHO updates coronavirus death rate

The World Health Organization (WHO) says about 3.4% of confirmed cases of COVID-19 have died, up from a previous 2% and far above seasonal flu’s fatality rate of under 1%.

But WHO also insists that the virus can be contained.

Speaking at a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the organization, said, “To summarize, COVID-19 spreads less efficiently than flu, transmission does not appear to be driven by people who are not sick, it causes more severe illness than flu, there are not yet any vaccines or therapeutics, and it can be contained.”

But the world’s supplies of protective gear — masks, gloves, and goggles — need to be increased by an estimated 40%, he said, adding, “We continue to call on manufacturers to urgently increase production to meet this demand and guarantee supplies.”

Tunisia reports first coronavirus case

Tunisia has set up two hotlines after a first confirmed case of the new coronavirus was detected in the North African country. People work the phones and prepare information documents at the Tunisian Ministry of Health’s Crisis Center.

The coronavirus has spread to all continents except Antarctica. But the WHO is yet to declare a global pandemic.

17 Italians test positive in India

Meanwhile, 17 Italian nationals have tested positive for the new coronavirus in India.

An anonymous source told AFP on Wednesday that out of the 21 Italian tourists who have been put under quarantine in a special facility in New Delhi, 17 tested positive for the coronavirus.

“We are awaiting test results of the others,” the source added.

Twenty three Italian tourists who arrived in the country’s western state of Rajasthan last month were put under quarantine in New Delhi after two of them tested positive for the virus.

The total number of cases in India now stands at 29.

Italy has the third highest number of cases worldwide, namely 2,500 cases. Its death toll from the epidemic stands at 79.

Germany reports 44 new cases

In Germany, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases increased to 240 on Wednesday, up from 196 on Tuesday afternoon.

Fifteen of Germany’s 16 federal states have now reported cases of the novel coronavirus, with the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia being the most affected, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

Germany has not reported a fatality from the disease so far.

Iraq reports its first coronavirus death, in Kurdish region

Meanwhile, Iraq has reported its first death from the coronavirus. The Health Ministry of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said in a statement on Wednesday that a 63-year-old man, who had tested positive for the coronavirus in Sulaymaniyah Province, had died.

Iraq has so far recorded 31 cases of the new coronavirus, including one Iranian student who has since been sent home.

Source: Presstv

The world has entered uncharted territory in its battle against the deadly coronavirus, the UN health agency warned, as new infections dropped dramatically in China on Tuesday but surged abroad with the US death toll rising to six.

Globally, the virus has killed more than 3,100 people and infected over 90,000 even as a clear shift in the crisis emerges, with nine times as many cases recorded outside China as inside, according to the World Health Organization.

China has imposed draconian quarantines and travel restrictions to keep large swathes of the population indoors for weeks, a strategy that appears to have paid off as new cases have been falling this month.

While Italy has locked down towns, other countries have stopped short of enacting mass quarantines and instead have discouraged large gatherings, delayed sporting events and banned arrivals from virus-hit nations.

South Korea, Iran and Italy have emerged as major spawning grounds for the novel coronavirus, which is believed to have originated at a market that sold wild animals in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

“We are in uncharted territory,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday.

“We have never before seen a respiratory pathogen that is capable of community transmission, but which can also be contained with the right measures.”

Community transmission means infections within a population are not imported from another virus-hit area.

The United States is now facing a potential epidemic, with six people dying in the northwestern state of Washington, where officials warned residents the battle against the disease was shifting from containment to mitigation.

“The risk for all of us of becoming infected will be increasing,” said Jeff Duchin, a health officer in King County where five of the deaths occurred.

The district is home to Seattle, a city with a population of more than 700,000 people.

US eyes treatment

The White House, which has been accused of downplaying the threat from the virus, continued to strike a bullish tone.

Vice President Mike Pence declared that a treatment “could literally be available by this summer, or early fall.”

He was likely referring to remdesivir, an antiviral drug developed by the pharmaceutical firm Gilead that has already been used to treat one US patient and was moving toward two expansive final stage trials in Asia.

Pence also announced American pharmaceuticals were teaming up in a consortium to fight the virus, and said that South Korea and Italy, two of the hardest-hit nations, would screen all their airline passengers bound for the US.

Despite its world-class hospitals and cutting edge research, the US is viewed as vulnerable to an epidemic because of glaring disparities in its health care system, including nearly 28 million people without coverage.

China cases down

China reported 125 new cases on Tuesday, its lowest daily increase in six weeks, with all but 11 infections in Wuhan’s central Hubei province.

The nationwide death toll rose to 2,943 with 31 more deaths, all in Hubei.

Chinese officials have touted progress in the battle against the epidemic, which has taken a toll on the world’s second largest economy and threatened to cut into global growth.

Global markets tanked last week but rebounded on Monday after governments and central banks said they would step in if needed to soften the blow.

Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from G7 countries will hold talks on the issue on Tuesday.

Hotspots elsewhere

UN medical experts arrived in Iran on Monday to help it tackle the world’s second deadliest outbreak, with 66 fatalities and more than 1,500 infections.

China sent experts to Iran on Saturday while Germany, France and Britain pledged emergency medical supplies including testing equipment, body suits and gloves.

In Italy, tourist hotpots including the Duomo in Milan reopened to visitors but access was limited to avoid overcrowding in a bid to contain the virus.

Italy, Europe’s worst-affected country with around 1,700 infections, said Monday its deaths from the virus had jumped 18 to 52.

South Korea has the most infections outside China, with more than 4,000 cases and 26 deaths.

The WHO says the virus appears to particularly hit people over the age of 60 and those already weakened by other illnesses.

Its mortality rate is between two and five percent — higher than the seasonal flu.

Source: AFP

China says it has recorded 42 new deaths from the new coronavirus afflicting the country and the world, bringing the total global death toll to over 3,000.

China’s National Health Commission also confirmed 202 new infections and 141 new suspected cases on Sunday.

All the new deaths took place inside Hubei Province, the epicenter of the outbreak. And of the new confirmed cases, only six were outside Hubei.

The new figure brought the total number of the deaths inside China to 2,912.

A total of 44,462 patients had so far been discharged from hospital after recovery, according to the commission.

US records 2^nd death

Meanwhile, the United States confirmed its second death from the virus, known as COVID-19, in the Seattle area.

The victim, a man in his 70s with underlying health conditions, died on Saturday at an EvergreenHealth Hospital. The facility is the one in the Washington State where officials reported the country’s first death on Saturday.

Three other cases of infection were also confirmed in the US, all of whom were hospitalized at EvergreenHealth.

New York State also reported its first case of COVID-19 infection, and Florida declared a state of emergency to contain the outbreak.

As of Sunday night, 88 cases had been identified in the US.

While health officials have warned of the seriousness of the outbreak, President Donald Trump has attempted to downplay it. At a rally on Friday, he blamed the media and Democrats for hyping up the contagion.

The Trump administration has come under fire for the handling of the outbreak. Health experts say the administration is still sending mixed messages about a growing public health crisis.

“It undermines public trust,” said Georges Benjamin, the executive director of the American Public Health Association. “This isn’t well-coordinated.”

South Korea cases surpass 4,000

South Korea, which has the highest number of infected people outside China, declared 476 new cases on Monday.

The sharp rise in the number of cases took the country’s tally to 4,212 on Monday.

The death toll also rose to 22, after four people died of the disease on Sunday, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

Indonesia reports two cases

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Monday that two Indonesian nationals had tested positive for the virus after coming into contact with an infected Japanese national.

President Widodo also said that the infected people were being treated at an infectious diseases hospital in the capital, Jakarta.

The two were the first confirmed cases in the world’s fourth most populous country, with a population of more than 260 million people.

The World Health Organization has said the virus appears to particularly hit those over the age of 60 and people already weakened by other illnesses.

Source: Presstv